"The cinema travellers'' recently was shown at the Chiayi International Doc Art Film Festival in Taiwan on
March 26 (to a SRO audience! standing room only!)
An amazing film, an amazing glimpse back in time, and also at the present day in India as well.
photos and text compiled by American cinemaphile Dan Bloom living in Taiwan
The film was made in India by Mr Amit Madheshiya and Ms. Shirley Abraham .
The tent cinema owners developed a very creative marketing strategy -- putting the actor of the film in a tiny enclosure which doubles as the box office ticket window. While selling tickets, the actors inside the room also hand out complimentary photographs of themselves to the excited audiences lining up for a glimpse of the actors' faces up close in person! [Seen here is Diisha Kadam, the female lead of many a social drama, working in a ticket booth.]
A few hundred kilometres away from the cinema capital of India -- Mumbai-- outdoor/indoor tent cinemas often accompany religious fairs which begin after the crop gathering season ends. The magic of the big screen beckons these remote villages in Maharashtra once every year, which are still located far from real movi theaters. Imagine what a thrill this is for childrens, teens, adults and senior citizens! Hollywood inside a tent.
[ Around the mid-1940s, some creative business traders, farmers and school teachers carted off old cinema projectors of foreign make into this rustic milieu, establishing the first traveling cinema companies. Until now, the same projectors, though modified and much Indianized,have been handed down like heirlooms-across generations spanning more than six decades. ]
The annual arrival of the tent cinemas with the religious fairs is announced through inventive advertising practices. Old vehicles adorned with banners and hoardings begin to do the rounds of the villages, announcing the much awaited arrival of the cinemas.
The annual arrival of the tent cinemas with the religious fairs is announced through inventive advertising practices. Old vehicles adorned with banners and hoardings begin to do the rounds of the villages, announcing the much awaited arrival of the cinemas.
Although India is home to the most prolific movie industry in the world, producing around 800 films a year, it has one of the lowest ratios of screens to population - 13 screens per million people. The traveling cinemas show mixed fare, including regional language films, Bollywood blockbusters and Hollywood movies, but they are facing a fight for survival as DVDs become more easily accessible and cable networks penetrate further into the country.
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The belly of the modified truck that houses projectors and serves as a projection room also doubles up as a cabin to store prints, tickets, registers and records. The accountant also finds his space in here along with the projectionist.
Bought as sellout prints without rental fee from Bombay, the first 16mm film reels arrived atop bullock carts in villages in the early 1940's. Today, some six decades later, film cans are often couriered that arrive in sacks along with publicity material.
A dervish blesses the film prints at its premier.
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